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Brain Food

Hungry for more stories on science, culture and technology?

Check out Brain Food: Insights and Discoveries from Northern Arizona. From ground breaking scientific research to global music projects, Brain Food profiles some of the unique projects happening in the region and the interesting people behind them.

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KNAU and Arizona News

9:01 am

Thu March 26, 2015

Christopher Mann's laboratory at Northern Arizona University is strewn with bullet cartridges. He's an optical research scientist working on an invention to help detectives solve gun-related crimes more quickly, accurately and affordably. In his ballistics forensics lab, Mann is testing his 3-D imager - a camera system that uses light waves to record microscopic details found in shell casings.

For centuries, people have been knitting, crocheting, weaving and quilting...mostly for functionality but more recently, for enjoyment. And now a clinical psychologist in Flagstaff is studying the emotional and physical benefits of handcrafting textiles. Ann Futterman-Collier runs the Well Being Lab at Northern Arizona University.

Eighty-five years ago, almost to the day, astronomers at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff discovered Pluto. It was considered the 9th planet from the sun. But, several decades later, it was demoted to dwarf planet status. Alan Stern is a planetary scientist heading up the New Horizons mission to study its surface. At a recent lecture in Flagstaff he said there are hundreds of dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt where Pluto lives.

KNAU and Arizona News

5:06 am

Thu February 19, 2015

Tiny nanorobots may be the next big breakthrough in fighting cancer. About the size of a virus, the magnetic, metal machines could be used to detect and treat tumors from inside malfunctioning cells. John Gibbs is a physicist at Northern Arizona University and makes these microscopic nanomachines.

KNAU and Arizona News

5:30 am

Thu February 12, 2015

Pluto has a surface of nitrogen and methane ice. Scientists know this from telescope observations. But, when the New Horizons spacecraft flies by the dwarf planet in July, they hope to know far more about its icy composition. Flagstaff astronomer Stephen Tegler will be analyzing the data.

Every year, generations of classic car enthusiasts flock to sunny Phoenix for the Barrett Jackson Collector Car Auction. It's the essence of automobile artistry, power and engineering. And that's a perfect combination for Jerry McGlothin, a retired engineering professor at Northern Arizona University, and an antique car junkie.

Growing microscopic organisms in a lab to conduct biological warfare might sound like the makings of a science fiction movie. But in the case of the bark beetle, it's real. An entomologist at Northern Arizona University is using a fungus to combat the beetles' deadly attack on forests across the West. As Arizona Public Radio's Bonnie Stevens reports, the fungus is the latest in a string of unconventional methods to stop the bugs' rampage.

KNAU and Arizona News

5:00 am

Thu January 15, 2015

If you’re one of those people who puts on weight while another person eating the same meal doesn’t, blame your gut! Greg Caporaso says it’s all about the microbiome — or the microbes living in our bodies — that determines how many calories we extract from food and also, how susceptible we are to disease.